Engen refinery in talks with south Durban community after protest

More than 100 south Durban community members marched to Engen’s Durban refinery on Wednesday to demand responses to a memorandum they submitted a week ago.

Among the demands was for the refinery to do away with the current joint committee and recognise a local organisation, Changing Our Behaviour To Unite (COBTU), as the official liaison structure between the company and the community.

The community and COBTU officials have called on the Durban refinery since January to voice their dissatisfaction with the joint committee (JC). They said the committee was no longer doing what it was set up to do, which is to “ensure transparency and fairness” regarding community participation in Engen opportunities.

In what he called “the first phase” of their feedback to the community, Engen’s national stakeholder engagement manager Ronald Chauke said it had received, and was deliberating on, the memorandum delivered last week.

“We are very aware now that the community — not only COBTU and other structures — are not satisfied with the way that the JC is working. You also indicated in the community meeting that you don’t recognise the JC because you don’t think that the people in the committee get their mandate from you,” said Chauke.

“For Engen leadership to respond to these issues we need to be able to tick all the boxes: has Engen considered what the community said? What has the JC done? What is COBTU saying? What are other people who are not in COBTU saying? After that, Engen leadership must make a decision.”

Chauke said he would hold a meeting with representatives of the joint committee on Wednesday and communicate what was discussed and agreed in a meeting set for Thursday morning.

“Basically today we’re going to the moment of truth. If the JC cannot present its case and clarify that it is part of the solution to the community issues and Engen, it means the JC is not serving its purpose,” he said.

Chauke said they would also present to the community at the meeting scheduled for Thursday how it can better take advantage of the company’s opportunities and how, if there is a need to establish a new structure, they would go about doing that.

“This will ensure transparency and fairness on the processes happening inside the company. It will expose who is benefiting, gatekeeping and who is playing politics at the expense of the community,” said Chauke.

However, he pointed out that he saw the disconnect between the JC and the community when he had to “force” them to attend the community meeting that sought to address these issues in February.

He said if they are to dissolve the JC they would need time to follow company procedures to avoid a situation where auditors say they breached the law and compromised company reports.

“We looked at the full picture to come out of the community and the issues that are happening for you to find yourselves having to come to the refinery and protest on a daily basis. This issue has to be resolved without compromise so I plead with the leadership to allow us to challenge the JC.”

Chauke also confirmed Engen’s plans to convert the refinery to a terminal and said there would be more work. He said the company had approved plans to ensure local community participation and contractors had already been told about it and there was an agreement that every tender would come with a subcontract.

“During the time of shutdowns we used to appoint 3,000-3,500 people [but] as we are moving to terminals the work will not be as large-scale. There will still be a lot of work to be done though, those stacks will need to be brought down and we agree that the new opportunities must be fair and transparent,” he said.

He said they were also considering other demands that was presented to them, including a meeting with the CEO and general manager, but they wanted to resolve the issue of the JC first.

“The leadership of Engen decided that instead of responding quickly it must first resolve the issues of the structure that has been officially recognised. So it’s either the JC help us get a solution to have a healthy working relationship or it is not serving the purpose. Then a decision must be taken and communicated with all of you so that you all know what is available and how to accept those opportunities,” he said.

A community member told Chauke the majority of the community wanted to work with COBTU because they had proved themselves to them.

“We have always worked with COBTU and that is why the community is standing with them. Tell the contractors to go to COBTU and tell them the number of people they want and how long the job will be. We will work ourselves out with COBTU so that everybody gets the slice of bread — it's only about bread,” he said.

After the meeting with Chauke, COBTU chair Carlo Thomas said he was optimistic of a “favourable” outcome from Engen’s meeting with the JC but warned that the community would return to the refinery if the outcome did not favour them.

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